Local News

Avenel is an antebellum plantation house has stood since 1838. Sue Soreno of Ghostec believes that some of its former residents may have left something behind, something of themselves.

Ghostec, which Soreno and a few others formed three years ago, investigates paranormal activity — ghosts. She believes a ghost is what is left after a person's body dies — a field of energy, collected in one place, that contains the person's personality.

Former Governor Mark Warner, who is seeking the seat of retiring Senator John Warner (no relation), believes that the House's failure to pass a financial rescue package, Monday, will have an impact that goes beyond Wall Street.

“It was an embarrassment yesterday,” said Warner, who had stopped by Centerfest on Saturday, during a follow-up phone interview, Tuesday.

A Bedford man, who had entered no contest pleas in Bedford County Circuit Court in February to charges that he solicited sex from a minor he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, received probation after the charges were reduced during a sentencing hearing Tuesday.

A mission trip to Africa may be turning into something more that short-term for a Bedford County teen.

Renee Bach was two months past her 18th birthday when she landed at Entebbe Airport, outside Kampala, Uganda, on Sept. 18, 2007. She came as a short-term missionary to work in an orphanage. The experience she got was more than a culture shock.

"I was supposed to be picked up by the orphanage I was going to," she said. "When I arrived, there was no driver."

The Virginia and North Carolina chapters of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) will hold a conference at Mariners Landing this weekend. It starts, Saturday, at 9:30 a.m. and runs until 10 p.m.

According to Susan Swiatek, state director for MUFON's Virginia chapter, MUFON is a 501(c)3 national non-profit organization that promotes the scientific study of UFOs. Swiatek said the national organization maintains a case management system that allows the public to report sightings and investigators to update information on sightings. She said the database is still evolving.

Although sate elections won't be held until next year, candidates seeking the Republicans' nomination for attorney general are already making their rounds. Earlier this month, John Brownlee stopped by Bedford to speak at a Republican Party dinner.

Bedford has earned the National Weather Service's Storm Ready designation.

The city is only the fourth locality in the area covered by the Weather Service's Blacksburg office, an area that covers 52 communities, to earn that distinction. It's only the 18th locality in Virginia to earn the designation.

What this means, according to Phil Hysell, the Blacksburg office's warning coordination meteorologist, is that Bedford has made specific efforts to be prepared for a natural disaster.

One requirement is a 24-hour emergency warning point and operations center.

Area residents and agencies joined together this week to help the Bedford County Animal Shelter and the animals housed there.

Work under way at the shelter could have potentially led to some animals having to be euthanized, had the animals not been adopted or taken in by other agencies this week. “That didn't happen. That's ancient history,” noted Scott Polinek, facilities manager for the shelter. “Everybody in the area has really stepped up to help us out.”

Bedford County's supervisors will vote, Wednesday night, on a plan to get rid of the county decals that cars must now have stuck to their windshields. The vote is scheduled to occur following a public hearing on the issue.

A Bedford County jury found 35-year-old Keith Lee Dotson not guilty Tuesday on three felony sex offense counts involving a girl under the age of 13 years old.

The jury, which deliberated for less than an hour, acquitted Dotson on counts of attempted rape, aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy. Dotson, who was arrested last February, still faces three counts of forcible sodomy, one count of aggravated sexual battery and five counts of animate object sexual penetration in connection with the alleged assault of another girl.